What You Think

Writers: Eimi, Yvonne
Date Posted: 29th April 2008

Characters: Mariss, Shadux
Description: Mariss goes to thank her rescuer, and finds him somewhat... incapacitated
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 9, day 2 of Turn 4

Mariss awoke the next morning to find Trouble curled snugly against the crook of her knees and a pair of black eyes that made her wince when she saw her reflection in the mirror. Her father had left her a note saying that she was not to leave their apartments for any reason what so ever, but after she'd washed, dressed, and pinned up her hair she ventured out anyway. There were a few shocked gasps when she turned a corner and ran into a drudge or holder, but Mariss merely smiled sweetly, stepped around them, and continued on her way through the Hold until she'd reached a door that she knocked on.

"Come in!" Shadux called from his nest of pillows on the sofa. He had just finished a cup of something the healer had given to him for the pain and he felt way too good to move at this moment. Besides his floor was undulating like water, and he didn't feel like going for a swim.

"I hope you're decent?" Mariss caroled as she entered. Shadux's room was smaller than the apartment that she and her father shared, but she found herself looking around curiously before she remembered herself and reigned in her urge to snoop. "Goodmorning, Shadux. I hope I didn't wake you..."

"Maaariss," he said with a rather dreamy smile. "It's good to see you! Mind the water."

"The-- what?" Mariss looked down but didn't see anything but carpet.
"Did you spill something?"

He blinked a few times, and then remembered the drink the healers had given him. "Uh... yeah. Yeah, I spilled something, but I think its dry now." Just what was _in_ that cup?

Odd. "Oh. I, uh, just came by to see how you were doing. You look terrible, by the way."

"Well, either I'm seeing double," which was quite possible at this point, "or you have two black eyes."

"Rather hideous, isn't it!" she said cheerfully. "I came by to...
well... for two reasons, really. One was to lend you this." She produced a slim book bound in soft black leather from a pocket and handed it to Shadux. The title had once been embossed with gold but was now almost too faded to read. "I read it when I'm laid up. A seacrafter wrote it, and it's about how he built his boat and sailed it over to the Northern Continent by himself."

"Really? So it's like an adventure?" He ran a finger over the faded letters. It was as soft as it looked!

"It _was_ an adventure," Mariss sat down on a nearby chair, smiling as she gazed off at an imagined sea. "Could you imagine, sailing half way across the planet on a tiny boat that you built with your own hands...
it talks a lot about boat building, too. I knew there was a lot to it, but I'd never imagined that it would be so technical until I read the book."

"I used to build tiny boats," Shadux said with a far off, drugged-up smile. "Really? All I could manage were two or three sticks lashed together that I threw into the runoff from the rains," Mariss said. "Ah, well, we're river people. Boats are almost as important to Amber Hills as runnerbeasts. Even after my mother and brother drowned, my father insisted that I learn to handle a boat properly." And it was a good thing he didn't get seasick, cause his floor was still rising and falling with the waves.

"Oh. I didn't know that you had a brother..." Mariss looked down at her feet and tried to remember her own mother. She couldn't. "That must have been hard for you."

He shrugged as he watched the ripples move across his rug. "I have no memory of it. I was only three. He was six. I doubt we played much. I probably plagued him more than anything."

"You? Bothering _anyone_? I can hardly imagine it," she said dryly.
"Even as a three turn old I'm sure that you were nothing short of charming."

He turned an eye on her suspiciously. "You're teasing me now."

Mariss managed a small smile. "Maybe a little. But you're right - I ought not to. I owe you my gratitude, not a sharp tongue. If you hadn't come along when you had, I'm not sure... and for not saying too much to my Da. He worries."

"Oh well, for what it's worth, I've known Zelnu since we were boys. He's a bully, but he's all talk. I don't think he really would have...
hurt you, or anything." His friend he could not vouch for. To be honest, Shadux was glad he had come along himself.

"Don't defend him," Mariss said bitterly. "He's the sort of person that sharding well doesn't deserve being defended, no matter what he 'meant'.
That sort of thing would--" She cut herself off before she finished the sentence. **...would have never happened at home...** "At any rate, I'll be happy with coincidence this once. Thank you."

"I'm not _defending_ him. He was clearly being an ass. I just don't want..." He didn't want her to think they were all that like. But what was the use. She already thought they were all asses, and Zelnu was the proof of it. "I just don't want you to be afraid. That's all."

"I'm not. I'm just.. sharding well _angry_." At Zelnu and his friend, at the new Hold where such a thing could occur, and most of all, at herself for being weak and unable to deal with a pair of bullies without help.
She caught herself picking at the stitching on her cuff and firmly put her hands by her sides. "But my Da knows who they are, now. He'll deal with it, and it's done."

Shadux followed the movement of her hands with some fascination. Her skin was almost shimmering. "What were you doing walking alone in the dark anyway?" "I was just out for a walk, that's all. Sometimes I feel too cooped up inside."

"I know the feeling. Especially now that its so crowded inside. Sometimes I don't even feel like I'm in Amber Hills anymore." Growing up he had known each and every face he came across. Now, he was lucky to know half of them. They said all these people would be good for the Hold. But at what cost? Was the loss of their identity really worth that?

"At least you still _have_ a Hold," Mariss replied. Amber Hills had taken them in, but its holders weren't welcoming and the Hold itself was foreign, from its electric lights and riverboats to its tapestries and showy runners. "Amber Hills is beautiful, but sometimes the stones are just so... _different_. That's why I like walking. Your orchards look a lot like ours and I can pretend for a while that there never was an earthquake." She smiled, just a little. "I guess I'm homesick."

"We're all homesick. You may have lost your home and your way of life in the quake, but we've lost ours too. I really wish you could have seen Amber Hills before. I think you would have liked it."

Her back stiffened at the implied insult - that _her_ people had somehow deliberately ruined everything. That they were so base that they would interrupt a perfectly fine way of life merely by their presence. That Amber Hills Hold had been beautiful, but only _before_ they'd had to seek refuge within its sprawl. "You really-- oh, never mind." She sighed and stood. "I didn't come here for this. I just wanted to say thank you and lend you the book since you're laid up, but I won't waste any _more_
of your time." His eyes attempted to focus on her face now that she was standing over him. She caught him rather by surprise with the sudden movement. "I can't work for five days. I have nothing _but_ time to waste."

"Then I hope you enjoy the break," she said stiffly. "And I hope that you heal quickly. Good day, Shadux."

"Yeah, you too," he called after her, feeling his mind spinning ever so slightly. Did she really have to open the door and let the colorfully swirling draft in?

Last updated on the May 1st 2008

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